The present invention relates to commercial negotiations on the Internet, and in particular, to a method for providing automatic negotiation procedures for purchasing goods and services, including offering price discounts and presents, and other inducements through an electronic interface, without requiring human intervention. The negotiation process is started and conducted using personal criteria and behavior of each customer separately, such that the negotiations do not involve an auction. According to preferred embodiments of the present invention, the negotiation process features natural language capabilities in order to impart the feeling of negotiating with a human being.
As the Internet grows, many Web sites are becoming connected and more corporations are trying to do business on the xe2x80x9cWebxe2x80x9d. Although most information is still given freely on the Internet, an increasing number of organizations are attempting to actually sell their products electronically by charging a credit card. The area of electronic sales, or Electronic Commerce (e-commerce), has been developing rapidly. E-commerce provides anyone, located almost anywhere in the world to which a Web connection is available, to access any commercial business offerings through a catalog implemented as a Web site. Moreover, the use can access this service anytime, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. However, automatic negotiation procedures are currently not available, such that the user cannot interact with the e-commerce vendor in a manner similar to interaction is available with a human merchant.
Some potential customers may actually prefer to spend more time traveling to various human merchants in order to find a xe2x80x9cbargainxe2x80x9d through negotiations. The process of negotiation itself adds a xe2x80x9csparkxe2x80x9d to the process of shopping. The psychological effect of such a process from the user""s point of view is enormous, regardless of the actual amount of discount received. The whole process of shopping through an electronic interface such as the Internet suddenly becomes more exciting, and the user feels like a special, important customer in a xe2x80x9crealxe2x80x9d shop.
There is thus a need for, and it would be useful to have, a method for conducting negotiations on commercial sites through an electronic interface such as the Internet or through some other electronic connection.
It is one object of the present invention to provide a system to conduct xe2x80x9cone to onexe2x80x9d negotiations.
It is another object of the present invention to provide intelligent interactions with a computer user for the purpose of securing a sale.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide such intelligent interactions through a GUI (graphical user interface).
It is still another object of the present invention to provide such a GUI through a Web browser, such that the virtual sales representative is accessed through the Internet. Alternatively, the GUI is provided through an applet or other static software program, such that the virtual sales representative is accessed through a locally operated software module.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide naturalistic communication with the user through the GUI, such that the user is able to interact with the virtual sales representative through natural language-based communication.
These and other objects of the present invention will be explained in further detail with regard to the description, figures and claims given below.
The present invention is of a method for conducting xe2x80x9cone to onexe2x80x9d commercial negotiations through an electronic medium such as the Internet. The negotiation process consists of sending persuasive texts to the user by the system, including discounts given by the system and responses to the price offers of the user. The system offers the product for a specific price, a price that may be optionally decreased as negotiation continues. The system frequently asks how much the user is willing to pay for the product. Based on the user""s input, the system may accept the offer or, after one or more unacceptably low inputs from the user, may alternatively end the process of negotiation.
Preferably, the system negotiates on many more parameters than simply the price itself. For example, the system may offer the user several presents or benefits in order to secure the sale. Commercial considerations are preferably included during this process. For example, the human merchant (vendor) may receive a greater benefit by giving a small discount on the shipping cost than a large discount on the price of the product. The vendor preferably decides how to allocate control to the system.
According to the present invention, there is provided a method for an automatic negotiation process with a user through an electronic interface for a product having a starting price and a price offer from the user, the steps of the method being performed by a data processor, the method comprising the steps of: (a) comparing the price offer to the starting price according to a negotiation comparator; (b) if the negotiation comparator is fulfilled by the price offer, accepting the price offer of the user; and (c) alternatively, if the negotiation comparator is not fulfilled by the price offer, offering a discount incentive to the user.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method for interacting with a user about a product, the method comprising the steps of: (a) providing a plurality of keywords, each of the plurality of keywords indicating a topic; (b) receiving a natural language query from the user, the query including at least one word; (c) parsing the query into the at least one word; (d) determining a reaction of the user to the product according to the at least one word; (e) examining a library of comments for a comment to construct a reply to the user; (f) if the comment is not found, comparing the at least one word to the plurality of keywords; and (g) if the at least one word matches one of the plurality of keywords, selecting the reply according to the topic.
Hereinafter, the term xe2x80x9cdiscount incentivexe2x80x9d refers to an incentive for a user to purchase a product, including but not limited to, a discount in the price of the product, a present (such as an additional product at a low cost or at no additional cost), a benefit (such as a xe2x80x9cbuyers clubxe2x80x9d card) and a discount in the price of shipping the product.
Hereinafter, the term xe2x80x9celectronic interfacexe2x80x9d refers to any interface which does not involve a direct human interaction, including but not limited to, the Internet.
Hereinafter, the term xe2x80x9cWeb browserxe2x80x9d refers to any software program which can display text, graphics, or both, from Web pages on World Wide Web sites. Hereinafter, the term xe2x80x9cWeb pagexe2x80x9d refers to any document written in a mark-up language including, but not limited to, HTML (hypertext mark-up language) or VRML (virtually reality modeling language), dynamic HTML, XML (extended mark-up language) or related computer languages thereof, as well as to any collection of such documents reachable through one specific Internet address or at a specific World Wide Web site, or any document obtainable through a particular URL (Universal Resource Locator). Hereinafter, the term xe2x80x9cWeb sitexe2x80x9d refers to at least one Web page, and preferably a plurality of Web pages, virtually connected to form a coherent group.
Hereinafter, the term xe2x80x9cappletxe2x80x9d refers to a self-contained software module written in an applet language such as Java or constructed as an ActiveX(trademark) control. Hereinafter, the term xe2x80x9cnetworkxe2x80x9d refers to a connection between any two computers which permits the transmission of data.
Hereinafter, the term xe2x80x9ccomputerxe2x80x9d includes, but is not limited to, personal computers (PC) having an operating system such as DOS, Windows(trademark); OS/2(trademark) of Linux; Macintosh(trademark) computers; computers having JAVA(trademark)-OS as the operating system; and graphical workstations such as the computers of Sun Microsystems(trademark) and Silicon Graphics(trademark), and other computers having some version of the UNIX operating system such as AIX(trademark) or SOLARIS(trademark) of Sun Microsystems(trademark); or any other known and available operating system. Hereinafter, the term xe2x80x9cWindows(trademark)xe2x80x9d includes but is not limited to Windows95(trademark), Windows 3.x(trademark) in which xe2x80x9cxxe2x80x9d is an integer such as xe2x80x9c1,xe2x80x9d Windows NT(trademark), Windows98(trademark), Windows CE(trademark) and any upgraded versions of these operating systems by Microsoft Inc. (Redmond, Wash., USA).
Hereinafter, the phrase xe2x80x9cdisplay a Web pagexe2x80x9d includes all actions necessary to render at least a portion of the information on the Web page available to the computer user. As such, the phrase includes, but is not limited to, the static visual display of static graphical information, the audible production of audio information, the animated visual display of animation and the visual display of video stream data.
Hereinafter, the term xe2x80x9cuserxe2x80x9d is the person who operates the Web browser or the GUI interface and navigates through the system of the present invention.
Hereinafter the word xe2x80x9cproductxe2x80x9d includes both physical products and services (tangible and intangible products), as well as ideas and concepts.
The methods of the present invention can be described as a series of steps performed by a data processor, such that the method can be implemented as software, hardware, firmware or a combination thereof. As software, the method of the present invention can be implemented in any suitable programming language which is compatible with the computer operating the software acid and which could be selected by one of ordinary skill in the art. Examples of such languages include, but are not limited to, C and C++.